LOS ANGELES — Playing Skyler White, the odd-jobs keeper and mother of the White household on AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” has caused actress Anna Gunn to come under an enormous amount of scrutiny. But it also gave Gunn an unexpected perk — abs.

Skyler’s repeated efforts to stand up against her husband have pinned a target on Gunn’s back, causing the actress to become the target of some critics and fans’ Facebook pages and Web threads.

To address the issue, Gunn penned an op-ed in the New York Times last month, saying that her character “has become a flash point for many people’s feelings about strong, nonsubmissive, ill-treated women. As the hatred of Skyler blurred into loathing for me as a person, I saw glimpses of an anger that, at first, simply bewildered me. ”

Although the cast and crew of “Breaking Bad,” the runaway AMC hit series that follows Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a chemistry teacher who turns to the drug trade when he is diagnosed with cancer, have long since said their goodbyes on set, Gunn said it’s taken her a while to shake the character.

“I was always just so tense from working and everyone, the audience especially were just so against Skyler, she was really hard to get rid of,” said Gunn, basking in her Emmy win for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, an award she won last Sunday night.

“I carried her posture, her stress around with me even after I was finished most days. She’s not an easy person,” Gunn added. But the actress, over the course of the five seasons, also noticed a change in her body, most notably, her abs. “It’s almost as if I was constantly tensing and tightening my body to get into character. In fact, I was,” she said.

Gunn was nominated along with Maggie Smith for “Downton Abbey,” Emilia Clarke in “Game of Thrones,” Morena Baccarin in “Homeland,” Christina Hendricks in “Mad Men,” and Christine Baranski in “The Good Wife.”

Gunn said that when her name was announced, she looked at her co-stars and series writer and creator, Vince Gilligan and said, “Oh my god, are they calling my name?” It took several of them nodding their heads for the actress to realize she, and her character, had emerged victorious.